


Turn of Attitude

by Strange_Hearts



Series: The Harry Potter One Shots [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Other, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 21:24:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strange_Hearts/pseuds/Strange_Hearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <b>Changes when the Quirrell and Stone thing happened in the first year. After Harry wins the match against Ravenclaw and wins back the points he, Hermione, and Neville had lost helping out Hagrid, he's back to being Mr. All Right. However, he hasn't forgotten about how they treated him in the last few weeks, and he's not really ready to completely forgive everyone, especially after learing about a book that shows the point loss of people in previous years.</b>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turn of Attitude

**Author's Note:**

> **_Disclaimer: I did not own Harry Potter._ **

It was a lighthearted atmosphere inside Gryffindor tower as the most of the members celebrated their win against the Ravenclaw, which had heard them a grand total of four hundred eighty points; the Snitch had proven to be rather elusive that game, and the Ravenclaw team, having not practiced as much – mostly due to Wood always booking the field in advance, so as to not allow the other team much time to practice – had made it easy for the team of Chasers to rack up the points; not saying that the Ravenclaws hadn't racked up points either. Technically, they had been in the lead before Harry had noticed the Snitch, earning them a hundred and fifty point – the same amount of points that he and two of his friends had lost their house – which had brought their total to well more than that Ravenclaws.

However, while almost everyone was celebrating in the house – Wood even more so because of the fact that he had finally won the Quidditch cup – there were a few who were not celebrating. Harry Potter, Gryffindor Seeker who was responsible for the win; Hermione Granger, best friend of Harry Potter; and Neville Longbottom, acquaintance turned friend, were all in a classroom near the Gryffindor tower, a book in Harry's hand.

This book was the reason why they were there. He had found it in the library, hidden near the Restricted Section, a few days ago, had had gotten to read it just yesterday. In it, he had discovered something surprising, something he had immediately shown Hermione, who, in turn, had shown to Neville – Ron was conspicuously absent from such a round about due to the fact that Harry had, the same day he had found the book, overheard Ron telling someone that he only reason he stuck by Harry was so that he could bask in the humiliation that Harry had on him for losing the house all those points; it was fun for Ron to see Harry so downtrotten.

That was when Harry pretty much broke off for Ron. Oh, he still let Ron hang out with him, much like he had previously let the other around them hang out with him sometimes, before they all decided that he wasn't worth hanging out with because of the point loss, but he didn't look towards Ron for sympathy anymore, and informed Hermione of what Ron had said. She had responded rather coldly to him, confusing the rather easily confused red haired boy.

Anyhow, now that we know how Harry Potter found said book, lets get back to the story. Or, at least, lets find out what this book is. It is, after all, the reason for these three students to have gathered, away from the masses of the others.

"So, this book records every, _every_ , point lost since the beginning of the school, as well as who took them, and why they were taken," Harry told the other two, handing the book over. They opened it, looking through it until they got to the last page, finding their names on it, as well as _fifty points taken from Gryffindor for being out of bounds after curfew_ was written next to them.

"Okay. We already knew that we had points taken away for trying to help keep Hagrid out of trouble," Hermione said. They had already told Neville that they hadn't been trying to get Malfoy in trouble, that there really had been a dragon, and that he honestly hadn't need to try and find them to warn them because of the invisibility cloak Harry had had been covering them, though they did appreciate the thought. However, if it had been a story to get Malfoy in trouble, then they wouldn't have been out of bounds to begin with, and that they would have realized that Malfoy was there – the advantage of being invisible and all that. Hermione had put a silencing charm on the crate, after all, when she realized that it wouldn't do any good to be invisible if someone heard the dragon.

"So what's the point of book?" Neville asked.

"Payback," Harry said. The other two looked up from the book to him as he grabbed it back from Hermione and closed it. Their faces showed their confusion.

"Okay, think about it. When we lost those fifty points each – totaling a hundred and fifty – how did everyone treat us?" he asked.

"Horribly. Well, they treated you that way, mostly, but we got a bit of a backlash from it," Neville said.

"Correct. And why were we treated that way. I mean, I remember Ron mentioning that his brother's had lost loads of points before, and no one ever treated them the way that we've been treated. So why were we treated that way?

"It took me awhile to figure that out, but I finally did. It's because I'm famous. They've put me up on a bloody pedestal. I'm not allowed to be a normal boy to them. I'm not allowed to make mistakes, or have points taken away, because it forces them to change their opinions of me, from a bloody symbol to just a regular kid.

"Well, I think it's time for a little payback on them for thinking that. I'm going to point out their own mistakes, forcefully show them that I'm just a regular kid, and I will be forcing them to realize that their wrong to have acted the way they did before the game," Harry said.

"And what do you hope to gain from this?" Hermione ask. She would have tried to dissuade him from this plan, but she realized that it was needed, otherwise they'd never learn anything. While Harry might be the Boy-Who-Lived, he was also a human, prone to mistakes and not their bloody symbol to systematically build up and tear down. She'd heard of others loosing just as many points before, and yet no one ever ostracized them the way they were with Harry. And they couldn't use the excuse of having been knocked out of first place because of Harry's actions – she had noticed that, last year, Gryffindor would have won the cup if not for a massive point loss from one of the other Gryffindors.

"To make ashamed of the way they acted – well, most of them, anyways. Do you realize that you two and Wood – in our house, at least – are the only ones who didn't ostracize me," Harry said. Harry didn't count Ron in this little group, because of the fact that Ron really didn't support him.

"And the other houses? I mean, who in those houses were on your side?"

"For Ravenclaw, it was Penelope Clearwater, Padma Patil, Erika Levington, and Justine Coroseone. In Hufflepuff, it was Cedric Diggory, Nymphadora Tonks, and Eliza Faith."

He could see that the two only recognized two names, mostly because of the fact that Penelope was a prefect and Padma was in their year. However, the last five were very unknown to them. Plus, he could see that Hermione wanted to know how he found out that these people were on his side.

He sighed, before he started to explain how he knew, starting with the ones that they didn't know.

Nymphadora – who hated to be called by her first name – was a seventh year Hufflepuff that had ran into him and proceeded to let him know that she was 'on his side' once she'd introduced herself; Eliza was a fourth year who had sat next to him, must to the surprise of her classmates, and told him she didn't care that he'd lost point, as one, she wasn't in his house, and two, to act like he was the only person to ever lose points for their house – especially when she pointed out that he wasn't alone, and, therefore, had only really lost fifty points from his house – was just plain dumb.

Cedric was a third year who had changed his mind about Harry after overhearing Eliza, and had also been rather ashamed of his actions – he knew his mother would have walloped him over the head if she had seen his behavior. Erika was a sixth year who had been friends with Eliza's family for ages, and had been the only friend of Eliza's to also realize what Cedric had realized about Harry, and apologize about it. And Justine was a second year who knew that the actions of the rest of the school was just plain dumb.

And, apparently, Penelope – who preferred to be called Penny – and Padma agreed with Justine.

"Are you just going to do Gryffindor, or the other two houses as well?" asked Neville.

I'm going to do all of the houses. With the exception of people I named, they are all guilty of the same thing. Plus, I want to ask why they don't even attempt to win the house cup themselves; the way their acting, it's like they seem to think they can't."

"And when are you going to do this?" Neville asked.

"I'm going to do it for Gryffindor now, and then I'll go into the other houses – Cedric's going to help me get into Hufflepuff, and Penny's going to help me get into Ravenclaw – and do the same thing that I'm going to do in Gryffindor," Harry said.

"How are you going to get everyone to listen?" Hermione asked.

"You'll see, you'll see," Harry said, leading the three out to the tower.

* * *

Harry led the way into the Gryffindor common room, where people immediately surrounded him, shoving his friends off to the side as they congratulated him. He stayed silent, stony on appearance, which immediately got everyone's attention.

"I'm calling a house meeting…Now," he said. It was as if he had said some type of magic word. Everyone quieted, finding seats or conjuring them if they could, leaving him a space in a corner of the room, which would allow him to fully look at everyone, just as it allowed them to fully look at him.

He could see their curiosity on their faces, wondering why he would interrupt a party with a meeting.

"Okay, I know that you are all wondering why I've called a house meeting," Harry began. Everyone –save for the two who already knew – nodded their heads.

"It is due because of the actions of this house in the past month," Harry continued. Everyone got a confused look on their faces as they tried to think about what he was talking about; a few, however, seemed to realize what it was, and began to look anywhere but him, save for Wood, who, upon noticing Hermione's and Neville's reactions, realized it himself and became extremely glad that he hadn't gotten mad at Harry as everyone else had. Of course, his reasoning was different than Hermione's and Neville's – Harry was part of his team, and that meant that Wood would be on Harry's side even when the whole school was against him, just as he was on several other members side the previous years; it was what a good team did.

Then again, as Wood looked around, he noticed that several other members of the team were doing the same thing that the other guilty people were…. A rather stony expression made it's way onto his face at that, as he realized that what he had thought wasn't true, and, surprisingly, he hoped that they would get extremely embarrassed at having their point losses aired out, as, compared to Harry's, they were very extreme.

"I can see I've confused more than a few of you," he said. He then held up the book he had brought with him. "For those who do not know what this is, this is a book that records all punishments, whether detention or point loss. I discovered it in the library a few days ago, and I decided to read it."

He had everyone's attention now. Looking at the faces of people, he could see that what he was trying to say had finally dawned on many of them. The air was filled with the uncomfortably shifting of the house members, save for Ron, who's small brain hadn't quite picked up what Harry was saying properly.

"Now, as you can probably tell, my point loss is in here," Harry continued, opening the book up to a certain page. He held it up so that everyone could see. "As you can see, it says my name, the amount of points lost – which, for those of you who can't see, is fifty – as well as the fact that I was also given a detention for it."

"What do you mean, fifty?" someone yelled. "You lost a hundred fifty points!"

"Actually, no. I only lost fifty points. The hundred – which is technically also split up into two parts – came from two other people who were also caught that night," Harry explained.

"What does this have to do with anything?" someone else asked.

"I was hoping someone would mention that," Harry said. "It has to do with everything, in a way. You've all treated me like shite these last few months, because of me getting caught out of bounds, and the Professor's over reaction to it – it took me a while to figure it out, but apparently my father was a prankster while at school, so the Professor was probably having a bit of a flashback when I was caught.

"However, that doesn't have anything to do with it. No, what pisses me off – and makes me want to break more rules and get caught just to lose more points so we can't win the house cup as so many of you want us to –" here, many people in the room gasped at those words, for Harry was right, they did want to win the house cup – "so we don't, because, apparently, you can't do it your damn selves."

"Now, just wait one min-" started Katie Bell, only to stop speaking when Harry glared at her.

"Here's a few questions: Do any of you attempt to gain points in class? Do any of you try to keep the point loss down? Do any of you keep the twins from making us lose points?" He looked at each person in the room, noticing that many of them looked uncomfortable. "Now, while I can understand the twins thing being a no, the other two should be really easy to do. After all, most professors give points when you answer a question. In fact…" He looked over to Hermione. "Hermione, you're well versed in how many points are given in classes. How many do the teachers give to those who answer their questions?"

"Well, it depends on which teacher," she said. "Professor Snape gives no points during classes, not even to Slytherins. He'll happily take them away from the other houses, but that's it. Professor McGonagall gives five to ten points per question answered correctly, along with another five points doing your work properly. Professor Sprout gives ten points for questions answered correctly, and ten if you do the practical work properly, without trouble. Professor Flitwick gives fifteen per question answered correctly, as well as another ten for doing a spell properly – unless he's feeling generous, in which case he'll give fifteen to twenty. Professor Sinstra gives twenty points per questions answered correctly, though she doesn't give any for preparation. Professor Quirrel gives twenty points per question answered correctly, as well as an extra fifteen for diligent note taking – why do you think he checks them before you leave? And Professor Binns, well –" and here, she bit her lip, knowing that this was going to shock the hell of out the others – "well, Professor Binns gives twenty-five points each per member of a class for whoever manages not to fall asleep throughout the whole lesson, with thirty points given when we have a double class with him."

Everyone gaped at Hermione at that information, amazed at how well she had been able to figure out the point system for each teacher. Then, what she said about Binns entered their minds, and, just as she had thought, the reaction was astounding.

"You mean he gives the most points per lesson?" Dean Thomas said, amazement in his eyes. "We could all – at least for first year – each earn around sixty points per week by simply paying attention in Binn's class without falling asleep?"

"Yes. I was surprised when he gave me thirty points the first day in his class because I didn't fall asleep," Hermione said.

"But how did you do it?" asked someone. "I've tried to stay awake, but I've never been able to."

"I would tell you, but Harry isn't finished. Plus, you've been treating me just as badly as you have him, so why should I help you?" she said, making everyone shift guiltily in their seats.

"Anyways, as you can see, you can get points in classes, quite a bit of them, in fact, and this is not even counting the classes you choose to take in your third year – I have the feeling that, once that happens, Hermione will probably take all of the classes simply to know this information as well," Harry said. Hermione blushed, though she knew that he wasn't quite right; she wanted to know the information about the classes themselves, not how many points one got. "However, what we were talking about your actions in regards to a fifty point loss.

"Now, as you can imagine, this book shows other point losses than just my own." Here, Harry opened and flipped the book to another page. "Now, last year, two months before the feast, Gryffindor house had the most points at six hundred thirty. Now, why didn't you win the cup then?"

Everyone who was around at the time shifted, while looking at each other. They knew that they had been like that, but a massive point loss had happened which had stuck them at the bottom.

"Anyone want to answer me?" Harry said. "No. Okay, I'll tell you why; because a first year themselves lost the house five hundred points for damaging the library in a prank gone wrong. And everyone here knows who it is, too. Or, at least, everyone whose not a first year right now does." He looked straight at Katie Bell when he said this.

"Now, Katie, when that happened, what everyone do?" he asked.

"They...they said that it wasn't my fault and that it would be okay," she said, her head bowed down, guilt running through her.

"Now, how about that. She loses more points than I've ever done, but she gets a reassurance and is forgiven rather quickly at the same time. Strange really. I mean, based on the example given, she should have shunned, shouldn't she?" Harry said, making everyone who was in the school at the time guilty.

"Next example..." On and on, Harry went, picking people from all seven years who had cost the house many points when they were at the tip of winning the house cup, and showing, once again, just how different they were treated compared to him and the other two. Also mentioned was the fact that some these people had single-handedly lost the house over twice as much as Harry and the other two had, which had made their crimes so much more worse.

By the time he was done, most of the house was so sunk down that they knew that had a lot to answer for to Harry, Hermione, and Neville. All but Ron – who had been put underneath a silencing spell when he noticed everyone being guilty, for he had tried to make everyone hate Harry by saying that these examples didn't matter, that Harry had lost too many points in one go, despite the fact that these examples showed that other people in the house had done worse – would be making amends to the three at every chance they got.

Before the three went on to the next House they were going to visit, Hermione informed them of how she managed to stay awake in Binn's class. They were amazed when she admitted that she didn't listen to him straight up, but read a book, since she learned, early on, that everything he said was straight out of their history book. When she also admitted that the book she read wasn't a schoolbook, and that she didn't always read a book, but did other things, like work from another class, draw, or something else, they realized that they could do anything to keep awake, so long as they were there and careful not to show that they were doing something else. Hermione didn't tell them the other benefit to this, though, something that Harry and Neville had found out the first time they listened and stayed awake themselves.

* * *

After the visit to other houses – though Hermione never told the secret to Binn's class to them, save for those whom had been on Harry's side to begin with – the changes in attitude was obvious to the teachers. For one, everyone began to pay more attention in classes, trying their best to earn points. For another, all the houses but Slytherin shot up in points because of the improvements. And, finally, the twins weren't causing that much havoc anymore, partially because the house had cracked down on them, and partially because they wanted to prove that they could keep from losing points as well.

Everyone in Gryffindor – along with those friends who'd been nice to Harry – were amazed when they learned that they did not have homework to do from Binns. How they had missed that, they didn't know, though they suspected that it was like the points awarded – they never bothered listening.

Because of this, massive points began to be mounted for Gryffindors, bringing enough that the Slytherins were quickly brought down to the bottom, much to the displeasure of Snape, who tried to retaliate by taking as many points as he dared in class and out of it. Unfortunately for him, those who had seen the book brought up the ridiculous point losses to Professor McGonagall, who put Snape on point probation, something that, as deputy head, she had the right to, and something that Dumbledore couldn't stop. Potions classes, as a result, became much more pleasant in a way.

When the welcoming feast came – after Harry's adventure down the third corridor – Gryffindor was in the lead, without any help of the extra points Dumbledore gave them. It was noted, by many of the teachers, that this year was one of the strangest to happen. They wondered what would happen the next year.

**Author's Note:**

> **_The End_ **


End file.
